Thursday, November 03, 2005

It's arraignment day for I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, the indicted former Chief of Staff for Vice President Dick Cheney. I previously covered some basic information on arraignments here, but wanted to remind everyone that likely what we'll see if the following this morning:

-- Libby will most likely plead "not guilty" to the five charges contained in his indictment from last week.

-- He will likely have new legal counsel with him for this phase. He's been shopping around D.C. for a criminal trial lawyer (smart move), although I expect that Tate will also appear with him for the arraignment, since he is still attorney of record (unless paperwork on change in representation has been filed without anyone in the media picking it up).

-- There may be dates set for motion filings, hearings and potentially a trial date. And Libby's attorney(s) will receive some of the discovery from the Special Prosecutor.

Libby attorney Joseph Tate said inconsistencies in recollections among people regarding long-ago events should not be charged as crimes. Libby, who says he is confident he will be exonerated, is accused of one count of obstruction of justice, two counts of lying to FBI agents and two counts of perjury before a federal grand jury.

Sure. Those FBI interviews within a few weeks of the Novak article hitting the paper were sooooo distant in time from Libby opening his yap. Over and over again. Uh huh.

Clearly the grand jury bought that one hook, line and sinker since Libby wasn't....erm, never mind. The arraignment is scheduled for 10:30 am ET.UPDATE: TalkLeft has some interesting analysis on the latest Raw Story news. Good read.UPDATE #2: David Shuster is reporting on MSNBC that Ted Wells and William Jeffress (? -- thanks to Pach for catching what the name sounded like on this one -- missed it due to a toddler interruption) will be representing Scooter for the trial. Both are experienced white collar crime trial attorneys. Big questions being raised about who will or will not have to testify at trial if this goes to trial. MSNBC tying all of this in to pre-war intelligence questions. Also discussing Rove is on the ropes -- talking about whether Rove should stay on the job.UPDATE #3: The WaPo (via AP) has more on the arraignment and new legal representation for Libby.UPDATE #4: No shocker here, but CNN is reporting that Libby has plead "not guilty" to all charges. This allows motions and trial scheduling to move forward from here, now.UPDATE#5: David Shuster reporting that the next status hearing set for this case for Feb. 3, 2006. Defense counsel are having to fill out paperwork for clearance to review classified docs in discovery, so that will slow discovery review and motions filings. No trial set as yet -- makes sense, since the clearance paperwork will need to be processed and that takes a while before Libby's attorneys can do any substantial document and discovery review.UPDATE#6: WaPo has updated (via AP) here.